Ayatollah Ali Khamenei... President Hugo Chavez...

By Aleksander Boyd

London 04.02.05 | The following remarks were given by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei yesterday with respect to Bush' comments about Iran's fostering terrorism during the State of the Union speech. Should one were to replace Tehran - Iran for Venezuela - Caracas; Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for President Hugo Chavez; The Islamic Republic of Iran for the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela; Zionist for Olygarchs one realizes the remarkable similarity between the official lines coming out from Iran and Venezuela, with respect to accusations vis-a-vis their support to terrorist activities. "These claims have no basis", "baseless"... Where have we heard those words before?

TEHRAN: Iran's supreme leader yesterday condemned US President George W Bush's State of the Union address, saying his administration sought to uproot Iran's ruling Islamic establishment.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Bush will fail against Iran.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran, because of supporting the oppressed and confronting oppressors, is being attacked by the global tyrants," state-run television quoted Khamenei as saying.

"They (America) are trying, in a real but nonmilitary confrontation, through every possible means, to deny the talented Iranian nation of progress and deprive it of existence."

Khamenei was responding to Bush's annual speech to the US Congress, in which he accused Iran of being "the world's primary state sponsor of terror."

"America is like one of the big heads of a seven-headed dragon," Khamenei said. "The brains directing it are Zionist and non-Zionist capitalists who brought Bush to power to meet their own interests."

Iran denied Bush's repeated charge that it is pursuing nuclear arms, describing accusations in his State of the Union address as "baseless", official news agency Irna said. "These claims have no basis," Irna quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi as saying.